Stranger Things season 5 described as “season 1 on steroids”

The fifth and final season of the hit Netflix series Stranger Things was just about to start filming when the writers strike hit back in May. But now that the writers strike – and the actors strike that followed it – has come to an end, series creators The Duffer Brothers are preparing to head into production on Stranger Things season 5 at the start of January. But as they get ready to start filming, they took a moment to talk to The Guardian… and while the conversation was primarily about the stage play Stranger Things: The First Shadow, they also mentioned that the new season of the show will be like “season 1 on steroids” and the biggest the show has ever been.

Matt Duffer told The Guardian, “This season – it’s like season one on steroids. It’s the biggest it’s ever been in terms of scale, but it has been really fun, because everyone’s back together in Hawkins: the boys and Eleven interacting more in line with how it was in season one. And, yes, there may be spin-offs, but the story of Eleven and Dustin and Lucas and Hopper, their stories are done here. That’s it…“

The Duffers also revealed that they’ve been rewatching other long-running TV shows from the last 30 years to see how they wrapped up, because they want the ending of Stranger Things to be as satisfying as possible. Matt said, “Endings of shows are like opening a restaurant in terms of the success-failure rate – there’s an 80% failure rate, I’d say. But I think one very particular way to fail is to attempt to appease everybody. We have a huge variety of fans that span a huge age range and I’m sure they have all their own ideas of how they want the show to end. But we’re not consulting social media on this. Then you just hope and pray that it resonates. But it was funny: once we got there, it just felt right and we’re going to go for it!“

If you’d like to read what Matt and Ross had to say about the stage play, click over to The Guardian.

Here’s the list of the cast members and the characters they played in season 4: Winona Ryder (Joyce Byers), David Harbour (Jim Hopper), Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair), Noah Schnapp (Will Byers), Sadie Sink (Max Mayfield), Natalia Dyer (Nancy Wheeler), Charlie Heaton (Jonathan Byers), Joe Keery (Steve Harrington), Maya Hawke (Robin Buckley), Priah Ferguson (Erica Sinclair), Brett Gelman (Murray), Cara Buono (Karen Wheeler), Matthew Modine (Dr. Brenner), Paul Reiser (Dr. Owens), Jamie Campbell Bower (Peter Ballard), Joseph Quinn (Eddie Munson), Eduardo Franco (Argyle), Sherman Augustus (Lt. Colonel Sullivan), Mason Dye (Jason Carver), Nikola Djuricko (Yuri), Tom Wlaschiha (Dmitri), Myles Truitt (Patrick), Regina Ting Chen (Ms. Kelly), Grace Van Dien (Chrissy), Logan Riley Bruner (Fred Benson), Logan Allen (Jake), Elodie Grace Orkin (Angela), John Reynolds (Officer Callahan), Rob Morgan (Chief Powell), Amybeth McNulty (Vickie), and Freddy Krueger himself Robert Englund (Victor Creel).

It was announced back in June that Linda Hamilton is joining the cast for Stranger Things season 5. 10 Cloverfield Lane and Prey director Dan Trachtenberg will be directing an episode.

Stranger Things is produced by Monkey Massacre Productions and 21 Laps Entertainment. Series creators The Duffer Brothers serve as executive producers alongside Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen of 21 Laps Entertainment, Iain Paterson, and Curtis Gwinn.

What do you think of what Matt Duffer had to say about Stranger Things season 5? How would you like to see the show end? Let us know by leaving a comment below.